President Idi Amin Dada (Field Marshall) | State House Uganda President Idi Amin Dada (Field Marshall) 25 January 1971 to 11 April 1979 President Idi Amin Dada (Field Marshall) Field Marshal Idi Amin Dada was the third President on Independent Uganda, after Fredrick Muteesa II and Milton Obote. Amin, a bulk head figure standing at more than six feet, was no easy President. He shook the world in different ways through his antics and was at one time one of the most 'feared' dictators in the world. There are different accounts about his place of birth. In some accounts, he claimed to have been born at the place where the International Conference Center stands today. Others say he was born in Koboko to a Kakwa father and a Lugbara mother. His actual year of birth is not clear too. It is said that he was born between 1925 and 1928. Amin’s childhood was a total wreck because he was abandoned by his mother when he was still a baby. He, however survived the street-wise way, selling snacks and doing casual work to earn a living.

In 1946, Amin, who had hobnobbed with soldiers in his early life, courtesy of his mother’s marriage to a Kings African Rifle Clerk, joined the Kings African Rifles. It is not clear whether he joined directly as a soldier; however some sources claim that he was first recruited as a kitchen cook. But soon, he became a real soldier. It was while with the KAR that the word 'Dada' was added to his name because he kept mentioning it whenever he greeted a lady. In between soldiering, he enjoyed different sports activities, including boxing in which he rose to the level of a National Heavy Weight Champion, he tried out athletics as a sprinter and played rugby. He was all the time jolly. He was a distinguished soldier, easy to pick out from the crowd, largely owing to his actions. During an attack against the Mau-Mau in Kenya, he fought bravely in places like Kinyoma and Kangema in which he killed several of them. He was promoted to the rank of sergeant in 1955 and he became a Commissioned Officer in 1961.

He was deployed as commander of a unit in Karamoja that was supposed to stop cattle rustling in the area. By the time Uganda got her independence, Idi Amin was one of the leading soldiers who formed the first Uganda independence army. By 1964 he had been named Deputy Army Commander while Shaban Opolot was the Army Commander. Milton Obote then deployed him to help the Katanga rebels who were fighting against Zaire government. Later, it emerged that Amin had indeed sold gold and diamonds given to him by the rebels in return for arms. Much later, the issue went before parliament for debate; however Obote snuffed it in the bud by arresting all the ring leaders, hence saving himself and Amin. Having struck a 'wonderful' chord, when Obote fell out with Kabaka Fredrick Muteesa, it was Idi Amin, then a Colonel of the army that he turned to for survival. On 24th May 1966, Obote sent a force commanded by Idi Amin to attack the Lubiri in order to bring the Kabaka alive or dead. Amin carried out this order diligently.

While he obeyed his master’s orders to the letter, Amin had his personal ambitions up his sleeve. For example, he was recruiting hundreds of his kinsmen into the army. These were to come in handy later when he decided to take over high office. Among these included Sudanese and Congolese. By the early 1970s, Amin had created a sizeable force within the Uganda Army that could answer to his whims and Obote recognized this too. A fall out started and finally, it culminated into the 1971 coup. At that time Obote wanted to arrest Idi Amin for various cases including murder. Then, Major General Amin however used his men to stop the move and was soon declared President while Obote was attending a Common Wealth Conference in Singapore. There was jubilation when Amin captured power, largely because Obote had lost popularity. But soon, it was noticed that Amin was not the savior the country thought he was. Nonetheless, he started off by releasing all political prisoners who had been imprisoned by Obote. He appointed an all inclusive cabinet, full of professionals and experts-which were hailed by both local and international commentators.

But underneath this all, there was murder going on-especially of Langi soldiers in the Uganda Army. According to various accounts, over 1,000 soldiers from Privates up to the rank of Colonel were murdered in the first days after the coup. Outside the army, the first few years of Amin`s regime saw the murder of several prominent personalities including Ben Kiwanuka (Attorney General). By 1972, the economy which he had found in a good condition was shriveling. He had already caught up with religious extremism and had shifted from being a 'darling' of the Western world- UK, to the East, especially Russia. He claimed to stand for the Palestinian cause and vowed to fight for it. However, it was his 'dream' to chase away the Asians, who hitherto owned most key businesses that shook the world. He gave them just 90 days to leave or perish. Many of them left, others did not, but instead chose to commit suicide. Asian businesses were then distributed amongst his cohorts. He then embarked on building his army as one of the best in Africa at the time, with fighter planes MIGs from Russia, tanks among others.

He was so smitten with his abilities that he threatened to fight the 'imperialists' in South-Africa and the Israelis from Palestine. In 1974, he got an international respite when he held the OAU conference in Kampala. Notable developments at the time included the construction of both Nile Hotel and Nile Mansions to host the conference. While killings continued unabated, Amin further took his antics to the international level. In 1976, he allowed a high-jacked Air France Plane, bound for Israel to land at Entebbe airport. The Israelis however attacked and rescued their citizens a few days later. His claim on land at the border with Tanzania, and earlier claims of land at the border with Kenya continued. In 1978, Amin`s soldiers launched an attack on the Kagera Salient in Tanzania and captured it. Little known to Amin, this was the sign that the Tanzanians and various exile groups wanted to get rid of Amin. By late 1978, they attacked and by April 1979, Amin had been defeated.

Amin fled to Libya and later Saudi Arabia where he died on August 16, 2003. Officially, Amin had five wives, all of whom he treated as 'First Ladies' at different functions. They included Kay Amin, Nora Amin, Medina Amin, Sarah Amin and Malyamu Amin. The number of children he fathered is above 30. Idi Amin - Biography - IMDb Biography Showing all 35 items Jump to: Overview (4) | Mini Bio (1) | Spouse (5) | Trade Mark (3) | Trivia (19) | Personal Quotes (3) Overview (4) 6' 4" (1.93 m) Mini Bio (1) Idi Amin Dada Oumee was born in the rural village of Koboko, Uganda, in 1923, a member of the Kakwa tribe. Raised in the isolated farming country of northwestern Uganda, Amin received a scant education which left him functionally illiterate. During the Second World War, at the age of 18, he enlisted in the British Army in the East African Rifles and fought in Burma against the Japanese.

At the end of the war Amin joined the British 4th Ugandan Battalion. After distinguishing himself in the fight against Kenya's Mau Maus between 1953 and 1957, Amin was promoted to sergeant major and admitted to an officer training program. Despite his lack of formal education, he proved to be one of Uganda's most able military commanders. In 1964, two years after Uganda was granted independence from Great Britian, Amin was appointed deputy chief of the nation's army and air force with the rank of colonel. When Amin's friend, Dr. Milton Obote, seized power in Uganda in February 1966, he placed Amin as his right-hand man in full command of the armed forces, promoting him to major general in 1968. By 1970 a rift had developed between the two men, both wanting more power. On January 25, 1971, Amin overthrew Obote in a military coup, forcing him into exile. Amin then declared himself president and general, and a year later promoted himself to field marshal.

Amin's victory over the authoritarian Obote regime was initially greeted with widespread support. However, that soon turned to hatred and fear when Amin began solidifying his absolute control over the nation. Within months after assuming office this large man (standing 6'4" and weighing 280 pounds) ordered the murder of over 5,000 members of the rival Acholi and Langi tribes which Obote and his supporters came from, beginning a reign of terror in Uganda from 1971 to 1979 in which at least 350,000 Ugandans were murdered by Amin and his secret police. In 1972 Amin, angered over foreign residents' control of Ugandan commerce, ordered the expulsion of 55,000 Asian workers and businessmen and seized their businesses and assets for himself and his supporters. Amin also stole $1.5 billion in US and British foreign aid money and squandered it on military weapons, tripling the size of Uganda's army.

In 1975 he declared himself president for life and embarked on a campaign to humiliate British nationals, climaxing in the summer of that year when he forced four Englishmen to carry him around in an Organization of African Unity rally in a sedan chair. Amin received some international attention in June-July of 1976 when he allowed Palestinian and East German terrorists to use Entebbe airport as a base to hold a group of hostages from a hijacked Air France airliner from Israel. In a daring midnight raid on July 4, 1976, Israeli commandos freed the hostages. Although Amin claimed he was trying to negotiate the hostages' release, there was irrefutable evidence that he was indeed cooperating with and supporting the hijackers. Although he converted to Islam, Amin was oppressive in his new religion and was a noted polygamist with at least five wives and 23 children. By 1977 Uganda's economy was in shambles with a failing infrastructure, and Amin began losing support almost everywhere.

In an attempt to rally the Ugandan people for his support, Amin in the spring of 1978 ordered his army to invade neighboring Tanzania, occupying 400 square miles of the country, supposedly the beginning of his plan to conquer all of Africa for himself. After a slow start, a force of 6,000 Ugandan rebels-in-exile, aided by a slowly mobilized 50,000-strong Tanzanian army, launched a counter-offensive against Amin's 70,000-strong army in December 1978. Amin's forces, demoralized and unwilling to fight any longer for their leader, rapidly collapsed. Although Col. Muammar Gadaffi of Libya sent troops and equipment to aid Amin's army, and the Palestine Liberation Organization sent some of its fighters, they were not sufficient to quell the popular uprising that ensued throughout Uganda and the approaching Tanzanian troops and Ugandan rebels. Amin's oppressive rule was brought to an end on April 11, 1979 when Tanzanian soldiers captured the Ugandan capital of Kampala, forcing Amin to flee into exile, taking most of his ill-gotten wealth and supporters with him.

Amin first went to Libya and then to Saudi Arabia where he lived until his death in 2003. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Matthew Patay Spouse (5) Idi Amin - Facts & Summary - HISTORY.com A+E Networks Introduction In 1971, General Idi Amin overthrew the elected government of Milton Obote and declared himself president of Uganda, launching a ruthless eight-year regime in which an estimated 300,000 civilians were massacred. His expulsion of all Indian and Pakistani citizens in 1972—along with increasing military expenditures—brought about the country’s economic decline, the impact of which lasted decades. In 1979 his reign of terror came to an end as Ugandan exiles and Tanzanians took control of the capital of Kampala, forcing Amin to flee. Never brought to justice for his heinous crimes, Amin lived out the remainder of his life in Saudi Arabia. ‹ › Google Idi Amin: Early Life and Military Career Idi Amin Dada was born c. 1925 in Koboko, in northwestern Uganda, to a Kakwa father and Lugbara mother, who separated shortly afterwards.

In 1946, after receiving only a rudimentary education, Amin joined the King’s African Rifles (KAR), a regiment of the British colonial army, and quickly rose through the ranks. He was deployed to Somalia in 1949 to fight the Shifta rebels and later fought with the British during the suppression of the Mau Mau Rebellion in Kenya (1952-56). In 1959 he attained the rank of effendi—the highest position for a black African soldier within the KAR—and, by 1966, he had been appointed commander of the armed forces. Did You Know? During his time in the army, Amin became the light heavyweight boxing champion of Uganda, a title he held for nine years between 1951 and 1960. Amin Commandeers Control of Uganda’s Government After more than 70 years under British rule, Uganda gained its independence on October 9, 1962, and Milton Obote became the nation’s first prime minister. By 1964, Obote had forged an alliance with Amin, who helped expand the size and power of the Ugandan Army.

In February 1966, following accusations that the pair was responsible for smuggling gold and ivory from Congo that were subsequently traded for arms, Obote suspended the constitution and proclaimed himself executive president. Shortly thereafter, Obote sent Amin to dethrone King Mutesa II, also known as “King Freddie,” who ruled the powerful kingdom of Buganda in south-central Uganda. A few years and two failed—but unidentified—assassination attempts later, Obote began to question Amin’s loyalty and ordered his arrest while en route to Singapore for a Commonwealth Heads of Government Conference. During his absence, Amin took the offensive and staged a coup on January 25, 1971, seizing control of the government and forcing Obote into exile. Amin’s Regime of Terror Once in power, Amin began mass executions upon the Acholi and Lango, Christian tribes that had been loyal to Obote and therefore perceived as a threat. He also began terrorizing the general public through the various internal security forces he organized, such as the State Research Bureau (SRB) and Public Safety Unity (PSU), whose main purpose was to eliminate those who opposed his regime.

In 1972, Amin expelled Uganda’s Asian population, which numbered between 50,000 and 70,000, resulting in a collapse of the economy as manufacturing, agriculture and commerce came to a screeching halt without the appropriate resources to support them. When the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) hijacked an Air France flight from Israel to Paris on June 27, 1976, Idi Amin welcomed the terrorists and supplied them with troops and weapons, but was humiliated when Israeli commandos subsequently rescued the hostages in a surprise raid on the Entebbe airport. In the aftermath, Amin ordered the execution of several airport personnel, hundreds of Kenyans whom were believed to have conspired with Israel and an elderly British hostage who had previously been escorted to a nearby hospital. Throughout his oppressive rule, Amin was estimated to have been responsible for the deaths of roughly 300,000 civilians. Amin Loses Control and Enters Exile Over time, the number of Amin’s intimate allies dwindled and formerly loyal troops began to mutiny.

When some fled across the border into Tanzania, Amin accused Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere of instigating the unrest and retaliated by annexing the Kagera Salient, a strip of territory north of the Kagera River, in November 1978. Two weeks later, Nyerere mobilized a counter-offensive to recapture the land, and drove the Ugandan Army out with the help of Ugandan exiles. The battle raged into Uganda, and on April 11, 1979, Amin was forced to flee when Kampala was captured. Although he originally sought refuge in Libya, he later moved to Saudi Arabia, where he lived comfortably until his death of multiple organ failure in 2003. Tags Articles about Idi Amin by Date - Page 3 - latimes ARTICLES ABOUT IDI AMIN BY DATE - PAGE 3 NEWS Amin Forced Back to Zaire After Saudis Block His Return January 14, 1989 | From Reuters Former Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, expelled by Zaire when he tried to enter the country under an assumed name, was forced to return here Friday after Saudi Arabia declared him persona non grata .

Amin, who is wanted by the Ugandan government for the murder and torture of 250,000 people during his eight-year rule, was forced to return to Kinshasa aboard a Zairian plane. The 61-year-old deposed ruler was arrested at Kinshasa airport Jan. Advertisement Foreigners Flee Uganda, Tell of 'Shooting, Looting' August 1, 1985 | CHARLES T. POWERS, Times Staff Writer Soon after rebellious elements of the army seized control of Uganda's government last Saturday, a dozen soldiers appeared at the house of an Indian family on the outskirts of Kampala, the capital. "They made me, my wife and my two children lie on the floor," Meddy, the head of the family, recalled Wednesday. "Then they took everything in the house--the television, the video, the clothes from the closets, the pots and pans, blankets, shoes, even the covers from the cushions on the couch.

NEWS Uganda Tells Amin to Stay Away July 30, 1985 | United Press International Uganda's new military ruler today named a nine-man governing council that immediately warned former dictator Idi Amin to stay away and called for the return of deposed President Milton Obote, who fled to Kenya, to stand trial. Lt. Gen. Tito Okello, new ruler of the East African nation, named a guerrilla leader to the nine-man governing council in a bid to attract support for the new military junta. The rebels immediately rejected the government and vowed to continue the war. NEWS Stop Fighting, Amin Tells His 'Boys' in Capital July 29, 1985 | From Reuters Former Ugandan dictator Idi Amin said Sunday that he has ordered his followers to end their fighting in Kampala and to support the coup leaders who toppled President Milton Obote on Saturday. "I have been in contact with my boys and, this morning, I ordered them to stop fighting the government and support the coup," Amin said by telephone from the Saudi Arabian city of Jidda, where he lives in exile. "This is important to restore security to the country," he said.

NEWS The World : New Uganda Terror Told June 19, 1985 Thousands of Ugandans have been arrested, tortured and killed since 1981 when President Milton Obote returned to power in the wake of the overthrow of the brutal dictator Idi Amin, Amnesty International reported. The London-based organization said its research was corroborated by a surgeon and a forensic pathologist, who examined 16 former Ugandan prisoners now living in a neighboring African country and found medical evidence of rape, beatings, burnings, bayoneting and castration. CALIFORNIA | LOCAL Yusufu K. Lule, 72; Briefly Led Uganda After Fall of Idi Amin February 2, 1985 | From Times Wire Services Yusufu K. Lule, who briefly was president of Uganda after the fall of dictator Idi Amin, died at a London hospital after surgery for kidney failure. He was 72. Lule died Jan. 21 in Hammersmith Hospital, where he had received treatment periodically for six years.

Lule became the East African nation's president after Ugandan rebels and troops from neighboring Tanzania overthrew Amin in April, 1979. CNN.com - Idi Amin: 'Butcher of Uganda' - Aug. 16, 2003 Idi Amin: 'Butcher of Uganda' Amin was one of Africa's most notorious dictators. Story Tools  Born in Koboko, West Nile Province, Uganda, 1925  Raised by his single mother  President of Uganda, 1971-79  Took office in 1971 military coup  Ousted in 1979 military coup JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia -- A former heavyweight boxer who had been a British colonial army sergeant, Idi Amin exuded power during his years in Uganda. He served in the British colonial King's African Rifles and saw action in World War II in Burma. After joining the Ugandan army in 1962 when the colony gained independence from Britain, he quickly rose up the ranks to commander of the armed forces in 1966.

In a military coup in 1971, Amin ousted Ugandan leader Milton Obote and seized power. He declared himself president and began a reign seen as one of the bloodiest in African history -- earning Amin the nickname "Butcher of Uganda." The 250-pound dictator preferred to call himself Dada, or "Big Daddy." In 1972, Amin plunged his East African nation into economic chaos by expelling tens of thousands of Asians who had controlled the country's economy. And during his eight-year rule, Ugandans were gripped in a climate of fear as an estimated 500,000 people disappeared or were killed. Amin garnered a fearsome reputation as a sadistic leader surrounded by death; he was even reported to be a cannibal. Bodies were dumped into the River Nile because there were insufficient graves. At one point, so many bodies were fed to crocodiles that remains sometimes blocked intake ducts at the country's hydroelectric plant at Jinja, AP said. "Even Amin does not know how many people he has ordered to be executed ...

The country is littered with bodies," said Henry Kyemba, Amin's longtime friend and a former health minister, when he defected to Britain in 1977. He praised Hitler and said the German dictator "was right to burn six million Jews." He bizarrely offered to be king of Scotland if asked. Amin challenged his neighbor and frequent critic, Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere, to a boxing match, according to The Associated Press, and wished Richard Nixon "a speedy recovery" from Watergate. His political downfall came in 1979, when Tanzanian troops and Ugandan dissidents stormed his palace in Kampala, overthrowing the government. Amin went into exile in Saudi Arabia, where his friendship with King Faisal helped ease the way for a quiet retirement. His family asked Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni to allow Amin to return home, David Kibirige of Ugandan newspaper The Monitor told CNN. However, the Ugandan government said Amin would still face arrest and have to answer for his crimes. A member of the Amin family said he was to be buried Saturday afternoon in Saudi Arabia, Ugandan journalist Odoobo Bichachi told CNN.

Shortly after his health failed, Uganda's government rebuffed his family's request to allow him to be buried in his homeland, according to his relatives. A family burial site had been reserved for him in his former hometown of Arua. Story Tools Why Yusuf Lule was removed from office after only 68 days - Daily Monitor Amin Why Yusuf Lule was removed from office after only 68 days In part eight of our series on the fall of Idi Amin’s military government, Timothy Kalyegira explains why Yusuf Kironde Lule was thrown out of office after one of the shortest stints ever as president: - Friday April 17 2009 Advertisement In part eight of our series on the fall of Idi Amin’s military government, Timothy Kalyegira explains why Yusuf Kironde Lule was thrown out of office after one of the shortest stints ever as president: - When he was elected at the unity conference of the Ugandan exiles in the northern Tanzanian town of Moshi in March 1979, the former Principal of Makerere University College, Prof.

Yusuf Kironde Lule, became the chairman of the Uganda National Liberation Front (UNLF) and therefore President of the Republic of Uganda after the fall of Idi Amin. Having been welcomed by millions of Ugandans in an outpouring of emotion on April 13, 1979, Lule’s presidency appeared promising. He was the compromise candidate who would appeal to a broader cross section of the population than any other political leader at the time. Well-educated, soft-spoken, mild-mannered, Lule was the very antithesis of the rambling Idi Amin. In late 1976, Lule had formed, with a dentist called Dr. Martin Aliker, an organisation named the Uganda Society, and based in the Kenyan capital Nairobi. In their manifesto, the Uganda Society argued that Uganda had been destroyed by leaders who lacked education and personal wealth and so (lacking the latter), had been tempted to loot from the national treasury.

Lule and Aliker, in their manifesto, took a pro-Israel stance, promising that if the former US Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, would help secure them weapons and financial support, any government they formed in the event of the fall of Amin would adopt “an economic bias to suit the Israelis.” The Uganda Society was one of the lesser known of the Ugandan exile groups, so the fact that the openly pro-Israel Lule, inexperienced in politics, became president after the fall of Amin should raise the question of exactly who it was that funded the 1979 Tanzania-Uganda war. According to the Kenyan scholar Bethwell A. Ogot, President Julius Nyerere of Tanzania had put all his support behind his friend and the former president Milton Obote to succeed Amin in 1979. Nyerere, according to Ogot, asked Obote and the Tanzanian Defence Minister Rashidi Kawawa to fly to Masaka town and get ready to enter Kampala with the Tanzanian army should it finally oust Amin.

However, Tanzania, a poor socialist-leaning country, was finding it almost impossible to meet the $200 million cost of the war against Amin (another version later put the cost at $500 million) and appealed to its former colonial master Britain to help meet the costs. Britain accepted but only on one condition: that somebody else, anybody, could become president but not Obote. Furthermore, a powerful lobbying effort by Baganda in Britain appealed to the British to block the return of Obote to power. When asked whom they would prefer to become president instead of Obote, the Baganda lobby in London proposed Lule. And so it became. So crucial was the British financial role in the 1978-79 war and to the eventual rise of Lule to power that a telling and rather embarrassing symbol was missed by the tens of thousands of cheering crowds lining the Entebbe-Kampala highway to cheer on the motorcade bringing Lule and some of his supporters like the playwright Robert Serumaga for the swearing-in ceremony in Kampala on April 13. The president-elect of Uganda was being driven in a Mercedes limousine that bore the British flag, the Union Jack. The Uganda flag was nowhere in sight.

As we have already seen, Idi Amin in his farewell radio broadcast to Ugandans had told them that they might be praying for his impending downfall, but what they were going to get after him was a return to a colonial state with western powers determining all essential policy. As usual, nobody listened to Amin and so here we were witnessing the ridiculous sight of the British national flag – not the Ugandan flag – mounted on the limousine of the new Ugandan President Lule, 16 years after independence. However, after becoming president, Lule showed that he too could be independent-minded. In a Radio Uganda broadcast in May 1979, President Lule voiced his opposition to growing suggestions that the British– and Asian-owned companies that the Amin government had taken over and given to indigenous Ugandans should be returned to their former owners. Yusufu K. Lule, 72; Briefly Led Uganda After Fall of Idi Amin - latimes YOU ARE HERE: LAT Home → Collections Yusufu K.

Lule, 72; Briefly Led Uganda After Fall of Idi Amin February 02, 1985 |From Times Wire Services LONDON — Yusufu K. Lule, who briefly was president of Uganda after the fall of dictator Idi Amin, died at a London hospital after surgery for kidney failure. He was 72. Lule died Jan. 21 in Hammersmith Hospital, where he had received treatment periodically for six years. Lule became the East African nation's president after Ugandan rebels and troops from neighboring Tanzania overthrew Amin in April, 1979. Two months later, he was replaced by Godfrey Binaisa and was exiled to Tanzania, where he spent three weeks under armed guard before being allowed to fly to London. In exile, Lule became a prominent critic of Uganda's current leader, President Milton Obote, the man Amin had overthrown in 1971. He accused Obote of killing hundreds of thousands of Ugandans and of being even more brutal than Amin. Lule was was a lecturer at Uganda's Makerere University before becoming a minister in Britain's colonial administration of his native country.

When Uganda became independent in 1962, Lule became chairman of Uganda's Public Service Commission. Later he became head of the Ugandan National Liberation Front, pledged to Amin's ouster. MORE: TODAY IN HISTORY: Idi Amin declares himself president of Uganda - Daily Monitor Insight TODAY IN HISTORY: Idi Amin declares himself president of Uganda On Tuesday, Feb. 2nd, 1971, one week after the coup on Obote, Major General Idi Amin declares himself president of Uganda and chief of the armed forces Monday February 2 2015 Idi Amin "Dada" waves to the crowd after capturing power. Courtesy Photo In Summary Born in 1925, Amin was raised by his mother, a traditional herbalist, and her family in a Roman Catholic household until he decided to convert to Islam and attend an Islamic school. In 1946, he joined the British colonial military regiment, the King's African Rifles, and quickly rose from an entry-level position as a cook to the highest position that could be held by a black African in the British army, a warrant officer.

In 1961, he became one of the first two black commissioned officers in the regiment when he was promoted to lieutenant Advertisement By History On Tuesday, Feb. 2nd, 1971, one week after the coup on Obote, Major General Idi Amin declares himself president of Uganda and chief of the armed forces. Shortly after taking power he launched a genocidal program to purge Uganda of its Lango and Acholi ethnic groups and later that year, he ordered all Indians and Pakistanis to leave the country. Born in 1925, Amin was raised by his mother, a traditional herbalist, and her family in a Roman Catholic household until he decided to convert to Islam and attend an Islamic school. In 1946, he joined the British colonial military regiment, the King's African Rifles, and quickly rose from an entry-level position as a cook to the highest position that could be held by a black African in the British army, a warrant officer. In 1961, he became one of the first two black commissioned officers in the regiment when he was promoted to lieutenant.

In 1965, Prime Minister Milton Obote and Amin were implicated in a deal to smuggle ivory and gold into Uganda from Zaire. The deal, as later alleged by General Nicholas Olenga, an associate of the former Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba, was part of an arrangement to help troops opposed to the Congolese government trade ivory and gold for arms supplies secretly smuggled to them by Amin. In 1966, the Ugandan Parliament demanded an investigation. Obote imposed a new constitution abolishing the ceremonial presidency held by Kabaka (King) Mutesa II of Buganda, and declared himself executive president. He promoted Amin to colonel and army commander. Amin led an attack on the Kabaka's palace and forced Mutesa into exile to the United Kingdom, where he remained until his death in 1969. In October 1970, Obote himself took control of the armed forces, reducing Amin from his months-old post of commander of all the armed forces to that of commander of the army.

Having learned that Obote was planning to arrest him for misappropriating army funds, Amin seized power in a military coup on 25 January 1971, while Obote was attending a Commonwealth summit meeting in Singapore. Troops loyal to Amin sealed off Entebbe International Airport, the main airport, and took Kampala. Soldiers surrounded Obote's residence and blocked major roads. A broadcast on Radio Uganda accused Obote's government of corruption and preferential treatment of the Lango region. Cheering crowds were reported in the streets of Kampala after the radio broadcast. Amin announced that he was a soldier, not a politician, and that the military government would remain only as a caretaker regime until new elections, which would be announced when the situation was normalised. He promised to release all political prisoners. Amin gave former king of Buganda and President, Sir Edward Mutesa (who had died in exile), a state funeral in April 1971, freed many political prisoners, and reiterated his promise to hold free and fair elections to return the country to democratic rule in the shortest period possible "My mission is to lead the country out of a bad situation of corruption, depression and slavery.

After I rid the country of these vices, I will then organize and supervise a general election of a genuinely democratic civilian government." -Idi Amin, quoted in "Uganda, the Human Rights Situation" by the United States Senate. By 1978, the number of Amin's supporters and close associates had shrunk significantly. After the killings of Bishop Luwum and ministers Oryema and Oboth Ofumbi in 1977, several of Amin's ministers defected or fled into exile. In November 1978, after Amin's vice president, General Mustafa Adrisi, was injured in a car accident, troops loyal to him mutinied. Amin sent troops against the mutineers, some of whom had fled across the Tanzanian border. Amin accused Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere of waging war against Uganda, ordered the invasion of Tanzanian territory, and formally annexed a section of the Kagera Region across the boundary. In January 1979, Nyerere mobilised the Tanzania People's Defence Force and counterattacked, joined by several groups of Ugandan exiles who had united as the Uganda National Liberation Army (UNLA).

Amin's army retreated steadily, and, despite military help from Libya's Muammar Gaddafi, he was forced to flee into exile by helicopter on 11 April 1979, when Kampala was captured. On 19 July 2003, one of Amin's wives, Madina, reported that he was in a coma and near death at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, from kidney failure. She pleaded with the Ugandan President, Yoweri Museveni, to allow him to return to Uganda for the remainder of his life. Museveni replied that Amin would have to "answer for his sins the moment he was brought back". Idi Amin @ moreorless.net.au Idi Amin Background The British Government declares Uganda its protectorate in 1894. Surrounding kingdoms are incorporated, with the borders becoming fixed in 1914. Independence is achieved peacefully on 9 October 1962 but rising tensions between the country's different ethnic groups see Prime Minister Milton Obote impose a new republican constitution establishing himself as president and abolishing all the country's kingdoms. Ethnic tensions continue to rise.

Idi Amin seizes power in a coup in January 1971. Mini biography Born between 1923 and 1925 into the Kakwa tribe in Koboko, near Arua in the northwest corner of Uganda, close to the borders with the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sudan. His father is a farmer and a follower of Islam. His mother is a member of the Lugbara tribe and is said to practice sorcery. (Amin's younger brother, Amule, claims that Amin was in fact born in Kampala, the capital of Uganda, and that their father was working as a policeman there at the time.) Amin's parents separate soon after his birth. Amin is raised by his mother, who becomes a camp follower of the King's African Rifles, a regiment of the British colonial army. She will have more children from other relationships, with Amin becoming the third of eight siblings. Amin receives only a rudimentary education but excels at sports and reportedly converts to Islam at an early age. 1946 - He joins the King's African Rifles as an assistant cook. In 1948 he is promoted to corporal.

By 1958 he is sergeant-major and platoon commander. 1951 - Amin becomes the heavyweight boxing champion of Uganda, holding the title until 1960. 1952 - He serves in the British action against the Mau Mau revolt in Kenya (1952-56) and is described by officials as "a splendid type and a good (rugby) player, but virtually bone from the neck up, and needs things explained in words of one letter." One former commander remembers Amin "as a splendid and reliable soldier and a cheerful and energetic man." Another former commander describes Amin as "an incredible person who certainly isn't mad - very shrewd, very cunning and a born leader." 1959 - He is made a warrant officer with the rank of 'effendi', a position specially created by the colonial army for noncommissioned Africans with leadership potential. 1961 - He rises to the rank of lieutenant, becoming one of only two native Ugandans to be commissioned during British rule.

1962 - Troops under Amin's command commit the 'Turkana Massacre' while conducting an operation to suppress cattle stealing by tribesmen spilling into the north of Uganda from the neighbouring Turkana region of Kenya. Investigations by the British authorities in Kenya reveal that the victims of the massacre had been tortured, beaten to death and, in some cases, buried alive. However, with Uganda's independence only months away, the authorities decide against court-martialling Amin for his "overzealous" methods. Uganda achieves independence from Britain on 9 October. The king of the Baganda tribe, Sir Edward Mutesa, becomes the new nation's first president. The government is led by Prime Minister Milton Obote, who Amin supports. Overlooking the charges of torture, Obote promotes Amin to major in 1963 and to colonel and deputy commander of the army and air force in 1964, the same year that Amin helps put down an army mutiny at Jinja, Uganda's second city. Shortly after independence Amin is sent to Israel on a paratrooper training course.

He will become a favourite of the Israelis when he acts as a conduit for the supply of arms and ammunition to Israeli-backed rebels fighting a war in southern Sudan. 1966 - Following a financial scandal implicating Obote and Amin in gold smuggling, and on the back of growing opposition from King Mutesa, Obote suspends the constitution, arrests half his cabinet, and installs himself as president for life. King Mutesa is driven from his palace in a military operation led by Amin and forced into exile. A new constitution abolishes all the country's kingdoms. Amin is subsequently promoted to major-general and appointed chief of the army and air force. He begins to build a support base in the army by recruiting from his own Kakwa tribe. However, his relations with Obote start to sour. 1969 - In December an unsuccessful attempt is made to assassinate Obote. Brigadier Pierino Okoya, the deputy chief of the army and Amin's sole rival among senior army officers, tells Obote and Amin that the net is closing in on the perpetrators and that all will be revealed at a second meeting scheduled for 26 January 1970.

1970 - On 25 January Okoya and his wife are shot dead at their home. Relations between Obote and Amin deteriorate further following the murder. In November Obote removes Amin from his command positions and places him in an administrative role. 1971 - Amin discovers that Obote intends to arrest him on charges of misappropriating millions of dollars of military funds. On 25 January, while Obote is out of the country attending the Commonwealth Conference in Singapore, Amin stages a coup that is later reported to have been backed by Israel and welcomed by the British. Amin's military government accuses Obote and his regime of corruption, economic mismanagement, suppressing democracy, and failing to maintain law and order. Obote later calls Amin "the greatest brute an African mother has ever brought to life." The coup is initially supported by Ugandans, with Amin promising to abolish Obote's secret police, free all political prisoners, introduce economic reforms, and quickly return the country to civilian rule. However, elections will never be held during Amin's reign.

"I am not an ambitious man, personally," Amin says after taking power, "I am just a soldier with a concern for my country and its people." Amin is declared president and chief of the armed forces. Almost immediately he initiates mass executions of officers and troops he believes to be loyal to Obote. Thirty-two army officers die when dynamite blows up the cell in which they are being held at the Makindye Prison in Kampala. Overall, as many as two-thirds of the army's 9,000 soldiers are executed during Amin's first year in power. In foreign affairs, Amin is initially pro-West and inclined towards Britain and Israel. His first overseas trip as president is a state visit to Israel. This is followed a separate state visit to London that includes a meeting with Queen Elizabeth II. However, his position changes after he returns from a trip to Libya around the end of 1971. 1972 - Now determined to make Uganda "a black man's country", Amin expels the country's 40,000-80,000 Indians and Pakistanis in the closing months of the year, reportedly after receiving a message from God during a dream.

"I am going to ask Britain to take responsibility for all Asians in Uganda who are holding British passports, because they are sabotaging the economy of the country," Amin declares at the start of August. The Asians, most of who are third-generation descendants of workers brought to Uganda by the British colonial administration, are given 90 days to leave the country and are only allowed to take what they can carry. "If they do not leave they will find themselves sitting on the fire," Amin warns. The businesses, homes and possessions they leave behind are distributed without compensation to Amin's military favourites. With the true nature of Amin's regime becoming apparent, the British and Israeli governments begin to back-pedal on their support, refusing to sell him more arms. Amin then looks to Libya for aid, promising Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi that he will turn Uganda into an Islamic state. The Soviet Union also provides aid and arms for a time. Amin now challenges Britain and the United States, breaks relations with Israel, and throws his support behind the Palestinian liberation movement. British property in Uganda is appropriated, business relations between the two countries are restricted, and those Britons remaining in Uganda are threatened with expulsion.

To secure his regime Amin launches a campaign of persecution against rival tribes and Obote supporters, murdering between 100,000 and 500,000 (most sources say 300,000). Among those to die are ordinary citizens, former and serving Cabinet ministers, the chief justice, Supreme Court judges, diplomats, academics, educators, prominent Roman Catholic and Anglican clergy, senior bureaucrats, medical practitioners, bankers, tribal leaders, business executives, journalists and a number of foreigners. In some cases entire villages are wiped out. So many corpses are thrown into the Nile that workers at one location have to continuously fish them out to stop the intake ducts at a nearby dam from becoming clogged. The size of the army is increased, and much of the country's budget is diverted from civilian to military spending. Military tribunals are placed above the civil courts, soldiers are appointed to top government posts, parliament is dissolved and civilian Cabinet ministers are informed that they will be subject to military discipline. Ruling by decree, Amin also creates his own security apparatus to identify and eliminate opponents.

At its height, the security force will consist of about 18,000 men serving in three squads - the Public Safety Unit, the State Research Bureau and the military police. Amin's Presidential Guard also doubles as a death squad, as well as protecting the dictator from the many assassination attempts made against him. As terror reigns Uganda's economy begins to collapse, partially through mismanagement and partially as a result of the expulsion of the Indians and Pakistanis, who had formed the country's economic backbone. 1975 - Amin promotes himself to field marshal and awards himself the Victoria Cross. The following year he declares himself president for life. During 1975 he stages a publicity stunt for the world media, forcing white residents of Kampala to carry him on a throne then kneel before him and recite an oath of loyalty. In the summer, Denis Hills, a Uganda-based British subject, is sentenced to death by the regime for describing Amin as a "village tyrant." The sentence is dropped only after the British foreign secretary travels to Kampala to plead for Hills' life.

Hills, who is eventually freed, later warns against viewing Amin as a buffoon or murderer, explaining that Amin's "aggressive black national leadership" had won him many admirers in Africa. "(Amin) has the successful tribal chief's compensatory qualities for his lack of formal education: cunning, a talent for survival, personal strength and courage, an ability to measure his opponents weaknesses and his subject's wishes," Hills says. "It is not enough to dismiss Amin as a buffoon or murderer. ... He is an African reality. He has realised an African dream. The creation of a truly black state. He has called into being a new crude, but vigorous, middle class of technicians and businessmen." Meanwhile, Amin takes up the rotating position of head of the Organisation for African Unity, but is largely seen as an embarrassment. During the same period, Uganda is appointed to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. 1976 - Amin becomes personally involved in hostage negotiations with Israel when pro-Palestinian guerrillas hijack an Air France passenger jet carrying 105 Israelis and Jews on 27 June and order it fly to Entebbe in Uganda.

However, he is deeply humiliated when Israeli commandos stage a successful raid and rescue the passengers on 4 July. Only two of the hostages are killed during the 58-minute operation and only one is left behind; Dora Bloch, a British-Israeli grandmother who had been released by the hijackers for medical treatment. Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin later accuses Amin of "collaborating with the terrorists while using deceit and false pretences" during the hostage negotiations. Amin is also accused of allowing reinforcements to join the original four hijackers. In the wake of the Entebbe raid a furious Amin has Dora Bloch and more than 200 senior officers and government officials executed. He also expels foreigners from Uganda and unleashes a new round of violence, ordering the execution of anyone suspected of opposing him. At the end of July Britain breaks off diplomatic relations with Amin's regime. Amin declares that he has beaten the British and confers upon himself the title of 'Conqueror of the British Empire'. 1977 - In January Amin accuses the Anglican archbishop of Uganda of conspiring in an invasion plot. The next day the archbishop and two Cabinet ministers are murdered.

The US, meanwhile, cuts off aid to Uganda, with President Jimmy Carter saying that Amin's policies "disgusted the entire civilised world." 1978 - The price of coffee, Uganda's main export, begins to fall, further damaging the already staggering Ugandan economy. Armed rebellions break out in the southwest, coup attempts become an ever-present threat, and the Libyans begin to cut aid. In an attempt to divert attention from the country's internal problems, Amin launches an attack on Tanzania, a neighbouring country to the south, at the end of October. Tanzanian troops, assisted by armed Ugandan exiles, quickly put Amin's army to flight and counter-invade. 1979 - Beating back the Ugandan's heavy resistance, the invading Tanzanian forces take Kampala on 11 April. Amin flees to Libya, taking his four wives, several of his 30 mistresses and about 20 of his children. After being asked to leave Libya he lives for a time in Iraq before finally settling in the port city of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, where he is allowed to stay provided he keeps out of politics.

The Saudis provide him with a monthly stipend of about US$1,400, domestic servants, cooks, drivers and cars. He leads a comfortable life with his four wives in a modest house. Besides a huge death toll, Amin has left Uganda with an annual inflation rate of 200%, a national debt of US$320 million, an agricultural sector in tatters, closed factories and ruined businesses. 1980 - Milton Obote returns to power in Uganda following a general election. Obote's second administration is said to be at least as violent as Amin's, with security forces mercilessly combating an insurgency movement. According to the current government of Uganda, more than 500,000 civilians die as a result of the conflict. Obote is once again ousted in July 1985. 1989 - Amin attempts to return to Uganda to reclaim power but is identified at Kinshasa, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), and forced to return to Saudi Arabia. 1999 - Amin gives an interview to an Ugandan newspaper, saying he likes to play the accordion, fish, swim, recite from the Koran and read.

He expresses no remorse for the abuses of his regime and is reported to say, "I'm very happy now, much happier now then when I was president." 2001 - It is reported that Amin wishes to return to Uganda. He continues to be popular in his home province and begins to fund the rebuilding of family properties destroyed by the Tanzanian troops who expelled him in 1979. The Ugandan Government says that Amin is free to return but would have to "answer for his sins" and would be dealt with according to the law. Amin's relatives are able to travel to and from Uganda, and several of his children live and work there. 2002 - Uganda officially celebrates Amin's downfall for the first time. 2003 - In July Amin is reported to be in a coma and on life support in the intensive care unit of the King Faisal specialist hospital in Jeddah, where he has been receiving treatment for hypertension and general fatigue for three months. He had been admitted to the hospital with high blood pressure on 18 July. It is also reported that he is suffering from kidney failure but has refused treatment for the condition.

The current president of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni, says he will arrest Amin if he returns to the country alive but if he dies abroad his body could be brought back for burial. "If Amin comes back breathing or conscious I will arrest him because he committed crimes here," Museveni says, adding that if his body is brought back for burial "we shall not give him state honours. He will be buried like any other ordinary Ugandan." Amin dies in hospital of complications due to multiple organ failure at 8:20 a.m. on 16 August. He is buried in Jeddah's Ruwais cemetery during a small funeral ceremony just hours after his death. Comment By most accounts an illiterate and gluttonous buffoon, Amin has become the subject of many bizarre rumours and myths. There are stories of cannibalism, of feeding the corpses of his victims to crocodiles, of keeping severed heads in a freezer at his home and bringing them out on occasions for "talks" - most or all of which are unsubstantiated, but not necessarily untrue.

He is known to have admired the German dictator Adolf Hitler and is quoted as saying that Hitler "was right to burn six million Jews." It is also said that he planned to have a statue of Hitler constructed in Kampala. During his rule, Amin was a subject of ridicule in the West. His many outlandish statements were generally seen as somewhat eccentric if not a complete joke. The satirical British magazine 'Punch' at one time ran a weekly column supposedly written by Amin. There was even an irreverent pop song about him that did well in the charts. And Idi Amin would be a joke if his legacy was not so cruel. But perhaps it's not just Amin's cruelty to which we should look when seeking answers for the havoc he wrought in Uganda. While there's a lot of history to all the countries of Africa, and while the continent was far from peaceful before the arrival of Europeans, it's too often the case that wherever there was a colonial administration there is now a can of worms. We'll never know how Africa would have developed if it hadn't been colonised, but the outcome could hardly have been worse.

Africa has suffered more than any other continent from its colonial past, which has breed Ugandas and Congos and Rawandas and South Africas and Zimbabwes and greed and corruption and death. An obituary for Amin published in 'The Telegraph' on 17 August 2003 eloquently summarises the predicament. "Amin's tragedy, like that of so many Africans, was to have admired a civilisation whose external trappings he strongly desired, but of whose internal workings he had no idea, while at the same time he was partly enclosed in the mental world of a primitive tribalist," the obituary concludes. "He was a product of multiculturalism, African-style, and able to use relatively advanced methods to achieve brutal, primitive ends. Like every African dictator, he was confusion's masterpiece." More information

Question: Who returned as president of Uganda after the fall of Idi Amin?
Answer: Milton Obote